At the end of every quarter, I take a look at our actual spending as compared to what I budgeted at the end of last year. I don’t panic as long as there has been money to pay for everything and we aren’t raiding savings on a continual basis to pay for things, but, especially as the year winds down, I like to have an idea of what changes I need to make to the budgetread more…
Gas is Expensive!: With a full quarter of the year gone, it’s time for a quick budget review. The area where I seem most off so far this year is on car expenses. I budgeted $190/month, to include paying for insurance and setting money aside for repairs. Right now, I look at this and think “where did I come up with my numbers?” Insurance itself is over $100/month, even though we pay every 6 months. Thatread more…
This post is about how I determined what to budget for each category last year and how I’m planning to change that, if at all. Here are our budget categories, the average we have spent each month (Jan-Oct) and the budgeted amount (at the beginning of the year- some values have changed) Student Loans: 1,087/685 School expenses: 781/850 Bills: 2,183/2,135 Car: 638/190 Credit Cards: 26/15 Groceries: 401/450 Medical: 25/0 Eating Out: 159/150 Allowance – me: 162/125read more…
As I mentioned in my previous post, it’s getting to be the time of year where I need to review this year’s budget and start getting ready for next year’s. I personally believe that budgets should be fluid things. Each year, my goal is to take the things that worked and continue them while getting rid of the things that didn’t work. One of the main places I make changes is in my budget categories, orread more…
